Shapovalov relishing ‘sick’ showdown with Djokovic

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Novak Djokovic won a rematch of the 2008 Australian Open final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to set up a third-round clash with 19-year-old Denis Shapovalov&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Djokovic won in four sets 11 years ago and needed one fewer this time&comma; winning 6-3 7-5 6-4 as the clock ticked towards 1am&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tsonga has slipped outside the top 100 in the rankings after missing most of last season because of knee surgery&comma; but showed enough here to indicate he will soon be heading in the right direction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"twitter-tweet" data-width&equals;"550" data-dnt&equals;"true">&NewLine;<p lang&equals;"en" dir&equals;"ltr">&quot&semi;I&&num;39&semi;ve been coming to Australia for the last 15 years&&num;8230&semi; so hopefully I&&num;39&semi;ll be coming for 50 more&period;&quot&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We&&num;39&semi;ll still have you when you&&num;39&semi;re 81 <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;DjokerNole&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&commat;DjokerNole<&sol;a> 😉<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;hashtag&sol;AusOpen&quest;src&equals;hash&amp&semi;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&num;AusOpen<&sol;a> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;t&period;co&sol;2dPYmg7VVB">pic&period;twitter&period;com&sol;2dPYmg7VVB<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi; &num;AusOpen &lpar;&commat;AustralianOpen&rpar; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;AustralianOpen&sol;status&sol;1085899694205796352&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">January 17&comma; 2019<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;platform&period;twitter&period;com&sol;widgets&period;js" charset&equals;"utf-8"><&sol;script><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Djokovic said afterwards he felt more nervous than usual because of his long history against Tsonga&comma; calling him &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;one of the greatest rivals that I had throughout my life”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The generational divide was emphasised by Shapovalov describing the possibility of a night match against Djokovic on Saturday as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;sick”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 25th seed insisted he will not be overawed&comma; though&comma; saying of playing the big stars&colon; <em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Probably two years ago&comma; I was just happy to be on the court with them&comma; get a couple of games&period; Now I’m thinking how am I going to give a fight to this guy&comma; how am I going to win sets and potentially even the match&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"twitter-tweet" data-width&equals;"550" data-dnt&equals;"true">&NewLine;<p lang&equals;"en" dir&equals;"ltr">Saturday can not come quick enough for Denis Shapovalov 👊<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Can he upset the World No&period; 1&quest; 🤔<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;hashtag&sol;AusOpen&quest;src&equals;hash&amp&semi;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&num;AusOpen<&sol;a> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;t&period;co&sol;1ULx9S8M1P">pic&period;twitter&period;com&sol;1ULx9S8M1P<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi; ATP Tour &lpar;&commat;atptour&rpar; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;atptour&sol;status&sol;1085922336396771330&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">January 17&comma; 2019<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;platform&period;twitter&period;com&sol;widgets&period;js" charset&equals;"utf-8"><&sol;script><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Shapovalov burst on to the scene two years ago and was immediately hailed as a future star&period; He is the world’s highest-ranked teenager but admitted the expectation has been hard to deal with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I felt like I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching&comma;”<&sol;em> he said&period; <em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Everything kind of came so quick to me&period; All of a sudden I was in the spotlight&period; Now&comma; every week if I lose&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;Denis is disappointing’&period; It was so much noise&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Obviously I was blocking most of it out&period; But still it does get to you&period; I was just thinking to myself&comma; discussing to my team&comma; &OpenCurlyQuote;Is this really what I want&quest; What do I want in life&quest;’<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I came to the realization&comma; yes&comma; that’s what I grew up wanting to do&period; I want to be a star&period; I want to be one of the Rogers or Rafas&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fourth seed Alexander Zverev survived another lengthy battle at a slam&comma; staving off a fightback from Jeremy Chardy to win 7-6 &lpar;5&rpar; 6-4 5-7 6-7 &lpar;6&rpar; 6-1&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Stan Wawrinka and Milos Raonic are both working their way back up the rankings after injury problems and contested a high-quality encounter on Rod Laver Arena&comma; which went the way of the Canadian by three tie-breaks to one&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Raonic&comma; who defeated Nick Kyrgios in round one&comma; looks like he could cause significant damage later in the tournament while&comma; for Wawrinka&comma; there was frustration but also encouragement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 2014 champion said&colon; <em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s been a long way to get back&period; Today I’m sad and frustrated&comma; but&comma; if I take some distance with it&comma; I’m happy to see that I’m able to play again with this level&comma; able to move that well&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kei Nishikori fought off the challenge from evergreen Ivo Karlovic&period; The giant Croatian turns 40 next month and his first-round victory over Hubert Hurkacz made him the oldest man to win a main draw singles match here since Ken Rosewall in 1978&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He threatened to back it up with an upset of eighth seed Nishikori&comma; coming back from two sets down to force a deciding set before he eventually lost 6-3 7-6 &lpar;6&rpar; 5-7 5-7 7-6 &lpar;7&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Karlovic said&colon;<em> &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I had opportunities against Nishikori who is number nine &lpar;in the rankings&rpar;&period; In my old age it’s unbelievable&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Asked how long he might be able to carry on&comma; he only appeared to be half joking when he said&colon; <em>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If it’s like this&comma; another eight or nine years&period; I don’t feel any weakness with my body and my fitness&period;”<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was a landmark day for two Australians&comma; with 19-year-old Alexei Popyrin leading seventh seed Dominic Thiem by two sets to one before the Austrian retired due to illness and Alex Bolt defeating Gilles Simon 2-6 6-4 4-6 7-6 &lpar;8&rpar; 6-4&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 26-year-old briefly retired from tennis in 2016 and spent some time as a labourer before returning to the game the following season&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Last year’s semi-finalist Chung Hyeon is out&comma; beaten in four sets by Pierre-Hugues Herbert&comma; but there were wins for Borna Coric&comma; Fabio Fognini and David Goffin&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed347a47549">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; 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